Everyone’s a critic

Since starting this little corner of the net I’ve found myself checking out a large number of review sites and seeing how the rest of the universe writes about restaurants. Some things have caught my eye about the reviews I’ve read thus far.

It seems that some people don’t like food at all and given the negative reviews they post need to stay home and eat waffles. I realize that everyone has their own tastes but when your review states that the food at a certain Indian restaurant was too spicy or the selection was bad at a local seafood place due to there being to much fish on the menu there’s something wrong with you. This can be compared to stating that you would never return to a sushi bar because the food was raw.

I also tend to think that there are a number of people reviewing restaurants who are a bit snobbish and take reviewing way too seriously. In the city of Calgary where we live it’s hard to find many restaurants that are truly authentic and get things spot on as to the type of food they offer or the whole package experience that makes a person feel like they were back home. Yes I think Thai food should have certain flavors and a place claiming to be Greek should have lamb on the menu but let’s not go too far here. To give a bad review because the sides offered or the decor wasn’t what you’ve seen at “the several(insert ethnic food type) restaurants in the many countries I’ve traveled to”, when you have never actually been to the country of origin nor eaten at the real version, is a sign of some sort of mental disorder I’m sure. I could give a bad review to a Chinese place that didn’t offer sweet & sour chicken balls and chow mein or give me a fortune cookie at the end of my meal, but I won’t do that because those are all things that are in fact North American and not Chinese at all. But they are what many of us are used to at a “Chinese” restaurant where we live.

I hope that our reviews are seen as fair and we will try very hard not to get to the point where we nit pick and do more than what we intend, which is to say what our opinions are of the place and the quality of the the food and service. Nothing more.